Thank you all for reading and reviewing! SPOILERS FROM NEXT EPISODE 'MARRIAGE' are in this chapter! So do not read unless you have seen all the promo scenes! Also check out my Tumblr, it is all New Girl! pepperwood-just-kiss-me (. tumblr. com)
Chapter 2, Marriage.
Jess picked up the clipboard from table "34". She went down the list of names with her finger to see who she would be seated with. CeCe, a couple of people she didn't know, Schmidt, Winston and Nick. "What." She whispered in horror. She turned around to see Nick and Winston in the middle of the room. She watched as Nick left with Winston following then near the hallway Nick started to do his moon walk again. Her mouth dropped and her cheeks flushed. 'I can't believe they actually came.' She thought and groaned in frustration. 'And why is Nick wearing a turban?'. Jess sat down at the table and put her hand under her chin and tapped the white table cloth, pretending to be busy.
Schmidt walked by wearing traditional Indian clothing. "Schmidt!" Jess whispered angry standing up and pointing her finger at her.
"Oh why hello Jess, have you happened to see Cecilia anywhere? I have to make sure she sees me in this before I take it off, this material is killing me. Look!" He complained rolling up his sleeves to show his red arms. "I'm getting freakin' bumps everywhere!"
"Did you do this?" She asked pointing to the clipboard with the list of names.
"The seating arrangement? I ugh might have been able to mix things around, you're welcome. Now you and Nick can finally talk things out after your fun little makeout session." He said with a smirk and looked around the room searching for CeCe.
"No! No, we will not talk! We ran into each other last night outside my door after a fight and it was awful."
"Why the hell was he standing outside of you door?" Schmidt interrupted.
"And then he did his moonwalk back into his bedroom like a little-!" she finished
"Bitch? Okay Jessica, slow your roll. I mean he is a little bitch, and he probably went and curled up under his bitch blankys after walking away."
Jess laughed quietly "Moon walking away." She corrected and looked down to the red and yellow patterned carpet. Jess couldn't help but look up to the hallway door that Nick had disappeared to.
~•~•~
Nick was standing in the middle of the room with Winston when he made eye contact with Jess. She looked at him with horror and he returned it. He started to panic and then walked out into the hallway doing the moon dance once again.
"Nick, where you going?" Winston asked following him. "Nick, stop moon walking man."
Nick covered his eyes trying to control himself them looked up at Winston. "Hey, look I kissed Jess."
"I know Nick you told us already."
"I just don't-" Winston then cut him off by giving him a nut shot.
"Ohh! Ahh! Woooo!" Nick yelled holding his privates.
"That's because I never got around to it earlier."
"I deserved that." Nick managed to say in pain. He looked up and saw several women past bye. He looked down at the floor in embaressment then tried to stand up straight.
"I don't want a new roommate."
"Don't worry. She's not moving out." Nick told him starting to recover from the punch.
"I'm not talking about her! Hell no I am not talking about her! I am talking about you! When this whole thing blows up in your face, you're the one moving out! You think I like living with you? You have centipedes living under your bed!"
"Those weren't centipedes!" Nick yelled back.
"You named your testicles and they're both named Sharon."
"Yeah, so what?"
"What were you thinking when you kissed Jess man?" Winston asked looking Nick directly in the eyes.
Nick stared at him and sighed in defeat. "I don't know, I wasn't thinking."
"Just apologize and make it right."
"Why are so mad about this now? You have had a day and a half to nut shot me!"
"Because I didn't think it mattered! I thought we could all just move past it! That it didn't mean anything, which it clearly did!" Winston yelled at him.
Nick gave him a sad shrug and looked away.
"It did mean something didn't it?" He asked.
Nick looked at him. "What? No! Of course not! It's Jess! It didn't mean anything." Nick lied. He was confused, everyone was making a big deal about a kiss and it was starting to piss him off. So what he kissed Jess? That is between him and her. The other two roommates played only small part in it with the whole roommate dynamic situation. They hadn't even figured out what the kiss meant to eachother or themselves, they were both confused and needed to talk to one another. But for now would Nick just wanted to run from her, far away. Yet he also wanted to hold her and never let go.
"Then why can't you two move past it! Why is it taking this long to even talk to each other man?"
"I don't know Winston! All what I can say is, do I regret it? No! Would I do it again? Probably!"
"You know she has a boyfriend right?"
"Yeah I know she's got a boyfriend." Nick sighed frusterated by the reminder.
"Yeah okay, have you seen him?" Winston asked.
Nick nodded his head and shrugged.
"Have you seen you?"
Nick closed his eyes and sighed. "Alright fine!"
"Just go talk to her okay? You clearly have things to figure out." He said walking away leaving Nick to sigh and look up at the ceiling.
Nick walked over to the wall wanting to punch it like he had in his bedroom but decided he shouldn't in public. Especially at a marriage convention for his friend and for his own good. Usually he would end up screaming high pitched and curling into a ball. Nick pulled himself together and walked back into the main room, trying to prepare himself for whatever was coming.
~•~•~
"Jess I think it was a bad idea inviting the guys." CeCe told her as they leant against the wall in the back of the room watching all the marriage games. About a dozen big round tables were set up all over with white table clothes and a number placed in the middle.
"CeCe I don't know if I'm going to stay, it's too weird with Nick here "
"I know, and I'm sorry about that. Jess I should go back, make my time here not a total waist. " CeCe told him touching her shoulder and groaning.
"Hey CeCe?" Jess asked.
She turned around and faced her friend.
"Go get 'em" Jess finished.
CeCe shot her a smile and walked off into the crowd.
Jess watched her friend disappear and curled her lips in as she stood alone. She thought about the night that changed everything. Truth was, she hadn't stopped thinking about it. It was like a movie playing in her head that wouldn't stop, even though she wasn't making much of an effort to turn it off. She closed her eyes playing back the part just before Sam had arrived at the loft. Her and Nick had ended up sitting on the ground side by side half naked and sharing meaningful looks after she had let slip he was 'smokin' hot'. Jess smiled as Nick's smile popped up in her head, she saw so much love from it. It confused her because she knew Nick wasn't in love with her, that would just be crazy. She couldn't help but think he was at some points, she had run the question over in her head many times. The way he had not wanted their first kiss to be from a drinking game and the whole kiss in general. It really did feel like saw through space and time for a minute and she could only wonder if Nick felt the same way. Jess opened her eyes just in time and to see Nick walking her way. She felt the smile that she didn't know what was on her face drop into a panicked expression. She wanted to run away and now knew how Nick felt when we went outside her bedroom window just to escape her and get away for a second. Jess turned around and ran into a chair almost falling over in the process.
"Jess are you okay?" Nick asked concerned standing behind her and reaching ouch.
"What? Oh that, yeah that, I ugh meant to do that." She said turning around to face him. He had a small smile on and she forced herself to keep a straight face.
"Jess I think we should talk."
"Why? Talk about what?" Jess asked pretending not to know where he was going with the conversation.
"The kiss Jess! The kiss!" He yelled. "Because we should be able to just move on but we can't even look each other in the eye! It shouldn't be like this! Because it meant nothing!"
"I think you can admit that it meant something to you." Jess told him hurt bye his comment.
"Hey Jessica, it didn't."
Jess nodded her head but was not convinced.
"It was a drinking game and I was finishing the game." Nick explained.
"Yeah but it happened after the game when it meant something."
"Oh so it meant something to you!" Nick said in awe.
"What?" Jess asked her voice a little high than usual.
"It meant something to you." Nick said with a smile on his face waving his finger in a circle in front of her.
Jess slapped his hand down. "No stop! You think some stupid, terrible kiss-"
"You're thinking about it right now!" Nick told her. Nick laughed to himself happily.
"I'm calling Sam and we're-"
"Oh your calling Sam right now?" Nick asked his smile dropping.
"Yeah. He's going to come here and pick me up and ugh we're leaving so."
"Why are you running away? Because it meant somethin'?" Nick questioned her with another smile.
"We're not going anywhere." Jess told him and he started to back away with a smirk on his face biting his lip. His finger went back up pointing to her face; he twirled it around and shrugged then shot her a winning look then disappeared in to the crowd.
Jess groaned out loud. "Stupid Nick Miller." She mumbled then smiled. She shook her head frusterated she couldn't bring her face down in to a glare.
~•~•~
Jess sat at the table pretending to play on her phone as she waited for Sam. She watched the door but didn't dare look anywhere else unless Nick was around. She brought her head back down to her iPhone pressing an app then going back to the home menu then pressing another app, continuing this for several minutes. Jess looked up again this time to see Sam hanging up his jacket in the hallway and walking in. She stood up and waved him down. He walked over to her and she hugged him patting his back awkwardly. "Sam! I am so glad you came!"
"What are you doing here anyway? Isn't this kind of a thing for single people?"
"I'm here for CeCe!" She told him quickly. "And only CeCe."
"I see that you brought everyone else also." He said pointing out her roommates scattered all over the large room.
"What? No, they just came. I don't even know why they're here. CeCe invited them. They're just going to ruin everything. Especially that Nick Miller character."
"Jess, slow down!" Sam laughed. "Are you okay! You've been acting weird."
"I'm fine Sam, let's just go play a game. Look, there is one over with the hula hoops that need a couple." She said and dragged him off.
Sam and Jess were in the middle of their hula hoop game when she caught CeCe and Nick watching her. She wondered if CeCe was telling Nick about what she had told her earlier at her house when she had poured out her feelings about the kiss.
"Jess!" Her friend yelled at her. Jess ignored her and looked up at her boyfriend and brought him in for a simple kiss. She felt nothing as their lips touched, just skin on skin, not the slightest spark or passion making her want more and it scared her.
"Jess!" CeCe called again.
Jess opened her eyes but continued to kiss Sam holding up her finger telling her to wait a moment.
"Jessica Day come here right now!" CeCe yelled puting her foot down.
Jess pulled away from Sam and sighed but secretly was glad it was over. "I'll be right back Sam."
"Do you mind if I fill in for you?" A young beautiful Indian women asked Jess as she was walking away. "Oh no! You go ahead, have fun!" Jess said quickly, not caring.
"Guys I am a little busy right now if you can't see." She lied to CeCe and Nick.
"Jess you two have got to get Schmidt out! He's ruining everything!" CeCe complained. Schmidt had been running around the whole day interrupting her games and chances with other men.
"That's just what Schmidt does CeCe! We kind of figured you wanted everything to be ruined which would explain why you invited him today" Nick said.
CeCe shot him a look and rolled her eyes. "I don't know why I invited him, of course I don't want things ruined, it's just that I was thinking about Jess, not me-"
"What does Schmidt being here have anything to do with Jess?" Nick asked curiously.
Jess looked at CeCe with wide eyes.
"Would you mind being my partner for a game?" An handsome Indian man came and asked CeCe. "Yes! I would love to!" She said relieved taking his hand and leaving Jess and Nick alone. She turned around a made eye contact with Jess "I'm sorry." She mouthed.
"Why was she thinking about you when she invited Schmidt?" Nick asked again.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Jess just tell me!"
CeCe stood next to her partner. They were about to start the second event which involved building a standing structure with newspaper and tape. Schmidt came up just as the rules were being explained. "Excuse sir but may I take your place?" He asked CeCe's partner.
"I'm sorry is this your boyfriend?" He asked CeCe.
"What? No! This, I don't know who this is." CeCe lied glaring at Schmidt.
"Yes, she is my girlfriend, now off with you!" Schmidt said shooing him away
"Schmidt what the hell is wrong with you?" She yelled. "Come here!" She walked away from the game and dragged him across the room and pushed him out into the quit hallway.
"We need another couple to fill in!" The women organizing the event CeCe and Schmidt had just left yelled. "You two!" She said pointing at Nick and Jess fighting with each other. "Can you please join in?"
"No, I'm sorry." Jess told her.
"We would love to!" Nick said with a fake smile pushing Jess' back over to the empty table with the supplies on it. The women continued to explain the rules.
"Jess just tell me why Schmidt needed to be here! Is it because if Schmidt came I would?"
"What! No! Why would I care if you came? If anything I don't want you here!" Jess told him honestly, she would be enjoying herself much more if she didn't have to worry about Nick.
"And start!" The women yelled and everyone picked up tape and newspaper.
"You're scared of me right now aren't you? You're scared because my moves work on you, funny thing is, I wasn't even trying, you just came crawling to me yourself Jess! And now you keep running away!" Nick told her.
"You haven't exactly made the biggest effort to stay put and talk to me either!" Jess yelled back.
"Jess I am the one who started the conversation earlier!" He stated referring back to their conversation he had tried to convince her that the kiss had meant something to her.
"You are also the one who moon walked away from me twice Miller! Twice!"
"Jess you liked kissing me, it's fine to say that!" Nick told her rolling the paper up and handing it to her to tape.
Jess shook her head picking the tape up and mumbled "no its not and no I didn't."
"I'm not on my knee asking you to marry me! It was a nice kiss!"
"You were like a dog and my mouth was like a bowl full of dog milk!" Jess yelled at him as he threw paper and she hit it away.
"It was like a damn fairytale that kiss, it was the best kiss of your life!"
"Are you serious?" Jess asked in stubbornly.
"But you have to take a little responsibility tarting around in that little soft pink robe!"
"Tarting around?" Jess asked.
"Not expecting to get kissed!" He finished. "I am a man Jessica!"
"What?"
"Pink robes are my catnip!"
"And we have a winning couple!" The lady announced pointing to Nick and Jess.
"We are not a couple!" They both yelled back.
Jess could not believe he was now blaming her for this. This was all his fault, not hers! He was the one who had pulled her in, he started the kiss. Sure she hadn't stopped him and had kissed back and loved every second of it but that wasn't the point.
Jess looked over and saw Sam and the same women who had asked if she could take her spot in the hula hoop game clapping for them. They had been in the same game. "Oh my god." Jess mumbled. 'Did Sam hear all that?' Jess asked herself. He had a smile on his face as he clapped for them so she assumed not.
A piece of her and Nick's 'paper statue' started to fall so Jess reached for the tape to fix it quickly. Nick saw that she was going for it and picked it up first.
"Nick give me the tape!" Jess told him angrily.
"Tell me the truth and I will!" Nick told her amused.
Jess reached for the tape and he put his arm behind his back. "Nick!" Jess went right up against him and grabbed his arm and scrunched her face. "Give me that." She said slowly through her teeth.
Nick smiled at her, he couldn't even tell if she was joking or not. She sounded mad, but in a Jess kind of way that made Nick feel giddy. "Hey Jessica, just tell me how you feel about our kiss and I'll give you the tape."
"You two kissed?"
Jess and Nick looked over to see Sam standing in front of them. They let go of each other and Nick put his hands up in defence even though he knew it was his fault.
"I-I thought you guys didn't though. Nick, he climbed out the window?" Sam questioned confused.
"We didn't! Well we did. Not then! After that!" Jess rushed. Sam's mouth fell open and he nodded slowly clearing hurt then walked away to a table and Jess ran after him.
Nick sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand then put the tape back on the table. As he did his and Jess' paper structure fell off but he caught it and put it back on the table and walked away bumping into an old lady. "Oh my god I am so sorry!" Nick told her lightly holding her back.
"I saw that boy." She told him.
"What?"
"You that means something."
"What are you talking about?" Nick asked the lady confused as hell. He started to get nervous, he hated talking to strangers, especially when they talked in riddles. The last time he had had a conversation like this is when 'Furture Nick' had visited him.
"That paper of yours and your ladies. Its symbolizes the relationship between you two." She told him.
Nick's mouth dropped and he was about to walk away because he was creeped out and couldn't handle it anymore.
"It's going to be the winning relationship, the one everyone wants and is jealous of..." The lady said explaining herself.
Nick stopped and looked back at her, " Are you referring to when we just won that competition?" Nick replied.
"And then it's going to start to fall apart and she's going to try and fix it. But you will be stubborn and ruin everything."
'When she was trying to get the tape to fix it but I stole it and wouldn't give it back.' Nick thought.
"But you will be the one to save it in the end boy."
"Because I caught the paper before it broke." Nick said, in awe mocking the lady.
"Yes." The women said then smiled slowly at him and walked away.
Nick laughed at the crazy women. "Ridiculous." he said out loud shaking his head then looked at the paper on the table. His laugh then turned into a nervous one and he looked back to where the lady had left. He started to wonder if she was right. Nick looked around the room "Lady?" Nick yelled out but could not find her. "You can't just say all that creepy stuff then leave! I'm kind of freaking out now."
~•~•~
"Get! Just get over here now!" CeCe said pushing Schmidt out into the hallway. A couple of people were out there talking but it was pretty quiet.
"What?" Schmidt asked her confused.
"You told me you had moved on." She said slowly.
"Only people who haven't moved on say things like that. I'm a squirrel, you're my nut, winters coming, imma store you in my cheeks girl."
"Please leave!" CeCe said slowly.
"You and I not being together does not make sense to me."
She shot him a sad look. She did not know how much more of this she could handle, her feelings toward Schmidt were confused, she knew he was still in love with her. She just could not tell if she felt the same way.
"I miss your body and the things I used to do to it."
"Schmidt!"
"I'm talking about sex." He finished.
"Today is about me finding someone within my culture that I can build my life with." She told him.
Schmidt's smile fell and looked at her deeply.
"It's about more than sex." She told him.
"Our sex was about more than sex." Schmidt said.
CeCe smiled slightly and looked at him.
"It's about history and memory and thousands of years of colonial suffering all released in one moment of pure excites." He explained with a smirk.
"Then why did the sex always end with you yelling 'blamo that happened'."
He looked down to the ground not meeting her eyes.
"Schmidt look I gotta get back in there, why don't you just go home." She said and left him there.
Schmidt leant against the wall and hit his head. He looked across the hall to see a mirror and walked over to it. "You got this son! You got this!" He said in his what he liked to call 'gansta' voice. He then walked back into the main room, refusing to give up just yet.
~•~•~
"Sam are you okay?" Jess asked. They were sitting at table '34' and she had just spent the last 20 minutes explaining herself and telling him about the kiss her and Nick had had. "Are we okay?"
"Jess I'm going to get going." He told her srunching his face.
"Okay, I'll call you later." She said with a slight smile.
"No." He said sternly and looked at her. "I don't think we should talk anymore." He told her slowly and stood up then walked away.
"No Sam!" Jess called after him.
Nick watched from his chair of the game Schmidt had made him do. He heard Jess yell and run after the doctor. Nick sighed and got up. He didn't want to keep the Sam around. He knew he could just let him go right then and he' be gone. But he couldn't do that to Jess, she cared about him and he made her happy, which made Nick happy. "Sorry." He said to his partner touching her shoulder and then followed Jess and Sam.
"Sam. Sam wait!" Jess yelled as he grabbed his jacket and continued walking out. She tried to keep up walking in very high heels which were hurting her feet. "I'm really sorry."
"I said I wanted to commit to this. I thought you understood what that meant!" Sam told her turning around.
"I do! I did..." Jess responded.
Nick walked up behind Jess. "Okay. Sam hey, listen." He said.
"What?" Jess asked mad at Nick's presence.
"Sam hear me out. I kissed her, okay, she didn't kiss me." Nick told him clearly. He then looked at Jess. "It didn't mean anything to her." He said with a straight face. He had a part of him that prayed what he said was wrong, the thought of the kiss meaning something to her made him happy.
"Thank you." Jess said lightly tapping his arm.
Sam then looked at Nick then punched him hard in the chest. Nick groaned loudly and fell to the floor holding himself. Why does that keep happening?
"Oh my god!" Jess said in horror kneeling beside Nick on the ground. She put her hand on his shoulder and looked at him worried.
"I'm sorry Nick it's the training." Sam said putting his hands on his hips.
"He's in such terrible shape you could've killed him!" Jess yelled at Sam horrified.
"I'm going to kick your ass man!" Nick managed to say holding his neck and chest rolling on the ground. Jess kept her hand on his shoulder and held one of his hands.
"Jess it may not have meant something to you, but it meant something to me." Sam told her. She sat up straighter and looked at Sam.
"Is there another doctor in the house?" Nick yelled still in pain. He thought back to the time Jess and Paul had broken up, he had been there too. He wondered what the deal with that was.
"Wait, Sam please don't go!" Jess yelled desperately standing up and facing Sam.
"Can you tell me it won't happen again?"
Jess looked at him shocked but couldn't find any words, she shook her head refusing to answer. She did not know if it would happen again. She wanted to say no. Tell Sam that it was a mistake and she hated it, but she couldn't.
"It's either me or Nick, Jess."
Jess stared at Sam feeling tears well up in her eyes. She looked to the ground where Nick was still on the floor rolling around then to Sam once more. "I'm sorry Sam." She croaked out looking him in the eye.
Sam nodded his head slightly and faked a smile puting his hand on Jess' hair then walked out leaving two shocked people left in the hallway.
Cliff-hanger! Thank you for reading! Next chapter is carried on from this one!
So 'Look after you', the title, is based from the song by The Fray, check it out! It is my favourite song for Nick and Jess :) Review if you want more!